There’s something about Llandudno that has always attracted people who think for a living. Not just holidaymakers seeking a pleasant week by the sea – though it’s been delivering that reliably since the Victorians – but writers, artists, intellectuals and thinkers who found in this particular corner of North Wales something that their usual environments couldn’t provide. The question of what that something is turns out to be more interesting than it first appears.
Part of it is the light. North Wales has a quality of light that painters have documented for centuries – the way it behaves over water, the drama of it against the limestone headlands, the particular clarity that comes from being somewhere the atmosphere hasn’t been compromised by urbanisation. Turner came to North Wales. So did many who followed in his tradition. Light like that is useful if you’re trying to see things clearly. For the Best Hotel in Llandudno, consider //stgeorgeswales.co.uk
And part of it is the scale. Llandudno sits between two headlands with the sea in front and the mountains of Snowdonia visible behind on a clear day. That combination of contained elegance and vast natural drama produces a particular quality of perspective that’s difficult to achieve in cities. Things that seemed important tend to recalibrate themselves against that kind of backdrop.
And part of it is the unhurried quality of the place. Lewis Carroll visited Llandudno with the Liddell family – Alice herself played on these beaches – and there’s something about that connection that feels appropriate. Llandudno has always been a place where imagination finds room to move.
Creativity needs space, quiet and somewhere beautiful to look. Llandudno has been providing all three for considerably longer than most people realise.